ADVENTURE IN ART

BY LUCY WERTHEIM

In 1930 Lucy Wertheim was showing a French friend around London, and she felt ashamed that no art gallery was dedicated to representing contemporary British artists painting in the ‘Modern’ style.

Using an annual allowance from her diplomat husband (the Dutch consul in Manchester) she founded her own space in Mayfair, for that very purpose, and became a collector of work by artists she admired, buying pieces which evoked in her a strong emotional response.

Phelan Gibb Three Graces, 1911
Towner Eastbourne, the Lucy Wertheim Bequest, 1971

She held regular exhibitions in what became a well-loved institution, favouring young up-and-coming artists (Christopher Wood, Frances Hodgkins, Henry Moore), artists who had fallen on hard times (Phelan Gibb), and self-taught ‘outsider’ artists (Alfred Wallis, Kathleen Walne). She loaned works from her collections to schools and other community spaces, and founded the Twenties Group of artists under 30.

Wertheim was forced to close the gallery when WW2 broke out (it was requisitioned for use as an air-raid shelter) and subsequently wrote a memoir of her experiences, Adventure in Art, which has just been republished by Unicorn, along with essays from art historians Frances Spalding and Ariane Bankes, and Towner Eastbourne curator Karen Taylor. The book, illustrated with 60 colour plates, is a companion piece to the south-coast gallery’s blockbuster show Lucy Wertheim, A Life in Art & Reuniting the Twenties Group, which runs from June 11 – September 25.

Unicorn/Towner Eastbourne, £30, published June 2022